New V6 power units are expected cost up to £18 million a year, and have been
met with anger among F1's smallest teams

Formula One’s ground-breaking engines have become the subject of yet more controversy, after the sport’s smaller teams made the expensive new power units the central plank of “final straw” proposals to cut costs.

Since plans for a budget cap were abandoned last month, four of F1’s smallest teams have become increasingly rebellious, even raising the prospect of a European Union investigation into revenue distribution and the power structures which govern the sport.

At a meeting of all teams at Heathrow last Wednesday, it is understood that Caterham, Force India, Marussia and Sauber elaborated on plans to save $30-40 million (£18-24 million), with the main focus of their anger directed at the costly turbo engines.

Last season a V8 engine cost around £7 million. In 2014 the V6 power units are thought to cost more than double that amount, at £15 million to £18 million a year.

Williams and Lotus were given the chance to add their signatures to the proposals, but declined.

Bernie Ecclestone, the sport’s ringmaster, also appeared to suggest last week that the cost of the engines — of which he has been a vocal critic — needs to fall.

“Tell me, what was the idea of the cap? To keep costs down,” Ecclestone said. “So we put this engine in and it costs four times more than the other one, and costs the manufacturers a hell of a lot of money.”

The four teams also put forward means to cap F1’s frenetic development in the middle of the season, by limiting the number of upgrades to four a year or by establishing a cut-off point after which no new parts could be brought to races. It is highly unlikely the larger teams would accept such an idea, given how crucial developing the car is to the ebb and flow of any F1 season.

It has been left in the hands of the FIA, motorsport’s governing body, and F1’s Strategy Group, made up of the biggest teams, to determine which proposals are adopted.

“This is the last roll of the dice,” a source told The Daily Telegraph on Sunday. “It is the final straw.”

The frustrated four are also confused as to the stance of Jean Todt, the FIA president, who has been a vocal supporter of cost caps but gave in to opposition from Red Bull and Ferrari, among others.

Any EU investigation would depend on whether a team made a “complaint” to the European Commission, which is currently in a state of limbo with elections ahead. However, there is a feeling that if the latest round of cost-cutting proposals are rejected, one of the smaller teams has increasingly little to lose by knocking on the EU’s door.